EP#58 Smita Deorah – Democratizing quality education in India, the growth playbook at LEAD & selecting the right investors for your startup

In this episode, Smita Deorah (Co-Founder & Co-CEO, LEAD), joins our host Digjay, to talk about her path leading up to LEAD, the genesis phase and what led Smita to make LEAD her life’s work, how LEAD plans to radically improve the state of education in India by transforming schools, the growth playbook & key challenges faced when building a scalable B2B product/service, what should founders focus on when hiring the core team for a mission driven startup like LEAD, Smita’s fundraising experience, LEAD’s criteria to select their investors & value-add from each of them, how being an entrepreneur has influenced Smita’s personality over the years and more.

Smita & Sumeet, founded LEAD in 2012 with a vision to make global-standard education accessible and affordable to students, especially in non-metro cities. LEAD integrates a world-class curriculum with technology that powers all stakeholders in a school environment. Today LEAD caters to 5000+ schools in 500+ cities across India. This school edtech unicorn startup, was bootstrapped through 2017 & has subsequently raised >$100mm in funding from marquee investors like Elevar Equity, Westbridge Capital & GSV Ventures.

Prior to LEAD, Smita founded Sparsh, a non-profit that implemented a pre-school in a box solution in 16 pre-schools around Mumbai. Prior to that, Smita spent 9 years in Procter & Gamble Singapore and India as a leader in Finance, Treasury and Strategy. You can connect with her here on Linkedin or Twitter.

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Show notes –

1. (01:45) Smita’s background & her path leading up to LEAD
2. (07:15) What led Smita to start LEAD & make this her life’s work
3. (10:30) The current state of India’s primary education system & how LEAD plans to radically improve the status quo
4. (17:55) LEAD’s first principles approach of building a scalable B2B product; focus on the target audience, product design and measurable outcomes
5. (23:25) The growth playbook; Key challenges faced when scaling up LEAD
6. (34:58) What should one over index on when hiring the core team for a mission driven startup like LEAD?
7. (39:15) Fundraising experience; LEAD’s criteria to select their investors
8. (42:12) Value add from each institutional investor on the cap table - Elevar Equity, West Bridge Capital & GSV Ventures
9. (47:15) How has being an entrepreneur influenced Smita’s personality over the years?
10. (54:00) Rapid fire and closing remarks

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